Evolution And History

184 CHAPTER 8 | Early Homo and the Origins of Culture

with archaeological, ana-

tomical, and geologi-

cal evidence. Because

rising sea levels since

the Pleistocene make

it impossible for pa-

leoanthropologists

to document coastal

routes for the spread of

Homo from Africa to

Eurasia, the evidence

from Georgia consti-

tutes the only direct

evidence of the spread of evolving humans from Africa to

Europe and to Asia.

Homo erectus from Indonesia

While it took many years for the skull cap and thighbone

discovered by Dubois to be accepted as part of the hu-

man line, these specimens are now considered typical

Asian H. erectus. In the 1930s, a number of H. erectus

fossils were discovered by German paleoanthropologist

G. H. R. von Königswald at Sangiran, Java (see Figure 8.3).

Von Königswald found a small skull that fluorine analysis

and (later) potassium-argon dating assigned to the early

Pleistocene. This indicated that these fossils were older

than the Trinil skull cap found by Dubois, dating to ap-

proximately 500,000 to 700,000 years ago.

Since 1960, additional fossils have been found in Java,

and we now have remains of around forty individuals.

A long continuity of H. erectus populations in Southeast

Asia is indicated, from 500,000 to 1.8 million years ago.

Interestingly, the teeth and jaws of some of the earliest

Javanese fossils are in many ways quite similar to those

of H. habilis.^9 When considering the spread of H. erectus

to Java, it is important to note that in the past, lower sea

levels resulted in a continuous landmass between most of

Indonesia and the Asian continent.

Homo erectus from China

In the mid-1920s another group of fossils from Asia, now

known as H. erectus, was found by Davidson Black, a

Canadian anatomist teaching at Peking Union Medical

College. Black was led to this site after purchasing a few

ancient humanlike teeth offered for their medicinal prop-

erties from a Beijing drugstore. He set out for the nearby

One of the oldest and certainly one of the most complete Homo
erectus fossils is the Nariokotome Boy from Lake Turkana, Kenya.
The remains are those of a tall adolescent boy.

© National Museum of Kenya

Since then, paleoanthropologists have recovered
some remarkable remains that can be accurately dated
to 1.8 mya through past volcanic activity in the region.
In 1999, two well- preserved skulls, one with a partial face,
were discovered. Thus the early habitation of this region
by members of the genus Homo is supported at Dmanisi

Black Sea

Aral

Sea

UZBEKISTAN

UKRAINE KAZAKHSTAN

RUSSIA

TURKMENISTAN

TURKEY

SYRIA IRAQ IRAN

GEORGIA

AZERBAIJAN

ARMENIA

Dmanisi

GEORGIA

Cas

pia

n (^) S
ea
(^9) Tobias, P. V., & von Königswald, G.H.R. (1964). A comparison between
the Olduvai hominines and those of Java and some implications for hom-
inid phylogeny. Nature 204, 515–518.